As if life couldn't get any more complicated for me, I just received a very unexpected visit. I wasn't home to receive this person, but I know that when I do, it's going to be bad. Since I wasn't home, he left me a very unpleasant gift, Sanosuke-a friend of ours-, lying half- dead in the front door. Like I said before, there are many people trying to take me out, but in order to lure me to them they sometimes hurt others. I don't want that to happen, that was the reason why I spend ten years wandering, I couldn't bear the thought of losing anybody else I loved.
Fate is a very sad thing sometimes, for I came into this city and finally my heart found some peace, but that unsaid fear still lives within me. Try as I might, I can't bring myself to leave this place, and maybe I'm being selfish, but then again, haven't I denied my heart some peace for too long? Now, though, I think I'll have to re-think my priorities, for a friend of mine has been injured in the pursuit of my being.
My unexpected visitor is here. He's sitting on the floor, his cold calculating eyes taking in everything they can from the place I call my home now. He was one of my fiercest rivals during the Revolution. Once, in a duel I almost lost my life to him, and we promised that one day we would finish our fight. I fear that that day has arrived.
I approach his sitting figure and speak.
'You were looking for me?' I ask.
He turned slowly, his eyes looking up and down my being.
'Not me, the government.' he tells me calmly.
I feel a cold sweat. I don't want to go back to work for the government. I am happy the way things are, but if the government is looking for me, it must be something important.
'I want nothing to do with the government.' I tell him sincerely.
He ignores what I said. 'It seems the government believes you are the only one who can kill your successor, Shishio Makoto.' he tells me.
'Shishio Makoto?' I repeat in a question.
'But before that, I must test your strength to see if ten years of inactivity haven't done an irremediable harm.' he says, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
I take a look at my surroundings, to see if there's anybody around, and I see Kaoru there. She's with Yakiko. I ask them to leave the room because it's dangerous, but Kaoru refuses. My adversary, Saito Hajime, pulls out his sword and I do the same. I can't run from this battle, it's inevitable.
The battle starts and I forget about everything around me. The only thing important to me is the man in front of me. I started fighting with my sakabato, but as the battle got fiercer and fierce4r, I reversed my blade to the other side.
Deep down I had wanted this fight for a long time. Saito is a formidable foe, and I have to keep all my senses open not to get killed. I can't hear Kaoru's pleas to stop, I don't want to hear her pleas; I want to see this fight to the end no matter what. I am willing to break the promise I made to her of never killing again in order to see the end of this. This fight was not happening in the now, it was happening in the past.
My alter ego, the blood thirsty side of me was starting to emerge from the depths of my soul. For ten long years I had repressed it because I feared that if it ever got lose again, I would not be able to bring it back. I was going to stay the monster forever, but now, I didn't care. He was screaming to be let out, and I was condoning his emergence.
My eyes turn deadly, and it is not me anymore. My alter ego, Hitokiri Battosai, has taken over this fight; it was him after all who had originally fought Saito. He raises his sword and lunges at Saito. Saito blocks and dodges. My Hiten-Mitsurugi style is evenly matched with his Gatotsu, but this fight has to end with only one victor. I attack again and he blocks with his belt. He attacks me and I block with the sheath of my sword.
'In the next attack I'll cut off your head.' I warn him, and I meant it, but nothing happened. At that moment an officer barged into the dojo and ordered us to stop.
I reverted back to being me again, and Saito sheathed his sword.
The officer tells me the situation and it's bad. Shishio wants to burn Kyoto. I know that I have to go, even if I have to leave the person I care the most behind.